AU688302B2

AU688302B2 - A method for measuring temperature, molecular composition or molecular densities in gases

Info

Publication number: AU688302B2
Application number: AU60130/94A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Lars B Baath
Original assignee: Mefos Stiftelsen for Metallurgisk Forskning
Current assignee: MEFOS - STIFTELSEN FOR METALLURGISK FORSKNING
Priority date: 1993-02-03
Filing date: 1994-02-03
Publication date: 1998-03-12
Anticipated expiration: 2014-02-03
Also published as: US6084415A; US5829877A; EP0698205A1; ATE209783T1; US6244743B1; WO1994018550A1; AU6013094A; SE9300347L; JPH08508338A; DE69429261D1; ES2169066T3; KR100469208B1; SE501473C2; DE69429261T2; SE9300347D0; EP0698205B1; KR960701359A

Abstract

A measuring technique and method are provided to simultaneously determine the molecular density of several molecular species and the temperature within a closed process room in a melting or combustion process. In such processes in the industry, e.g. in metallurgic process industry, it is important to determine the temperature and the contents within the gas or flame without physically connect to or disturb the process. This has shown to raise large problems especially at high temperatures. The radio signal over a frequency band is measured on the outside of the process room through a window in the mantel covering as a function of frequency and registered on a computer as a radio spectrum. The system is calibrated by using a known signal transmitted through the process room. The spectral lines are identified by their frequency from a database. The temperature is determined from several lines of the same molecular specie and the molecular densities are determined from the intensities of the lines. The method is suitable to determine vibrational and rotational excitation of molecular species in the radio wavelength range of 30 mu m to 500 m. The densities of molecular species and the temperature can be imaged in three dimensions inside the process room or exhaust channel if interferometers are used for simultaneous two dimensional imaging from several azimuth directions.

Description

A METHOD FOR MEASURING TEMPERATURE, MOLECULAR COMPOSITION OR MOLECULAR DENSITIES IN GASES.

This invention relates to a method for measuring temperature, molecular densities and molecular composition or any combination thereof, in gases and/or flames in melting and/or combustion processes.

Conventional gas analysis methods using IR-paramagnetic- and masspectrometer technology need a physical contact with the gas to be analysed. This means that the gas has to be cooled before entering the analyser which may affect the results of the measurements. Another disadvantage with conventional gas analysers is that they can not simultaneously measure the temperature of the gas and analyse the gas.

It is known that the attenuation of a continuum radio signal can be used to recover the amount of black smoke in exhaust fumes, as described in JP 60-64234. This patent method does not determine any molecular content, nor does it determine any temperature.

It is also known that the changes in refractive index of flying ash can be used to determine the carbon content therein, as described in International Application WO 90/03560. This patent method does not distinguish between molecular species and does not measure any spectral lines or determine m,:ecular densities configuration, or temperature.

It is also known attenuation and reflection in the exhaust fumes from a reaction engine can be used to determine changes in the exhaust fume composition, as described in International Application WO 90/03568. This method does not determine any molecular species or temperature.

It is also known that the existence of a specific molecular species can be decided if the molecular gas is first mixed with a drive gas and then injected into a cavity chamber, as described in patent US-A-5124 653. The cavity is then :i ajustcd to the wavelpenrih of the molecular transition and the moiecular aas i excited by injecting a radio signal. The radio transmitter is then turned off and the molecule will emit at its specific frequency if it is present. This method measures a single molecular line at the time and can only detect the molecular

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species for which it is specifically adjusted. This method does not measure the temperature or the molecular density within the process since the molecular gas has to be taken out of the process-room to the special cavity and the gas is also contaminated with a drive gas.

None of the above patents discloses, discusses, or makes possible the simultaneous determination of a multiple of molecular lines and species or can determine molecular densities and temperature in a working melting process or combustion process without any interaction with the gas flow.

Changes in the pattern of electromagnetic wave fronts represent the most 10 sensitive probes in physics. Electromagnetic waves may penetrate media of varying physical properties, changing its amplitude and phase in a way which is specific to the content of the media, Thus molecular gas will emit or absorb electromagnetic radiation mainly depending on its density, the physical temperature, or the radiation field in the area where the gas resides. Continuum radiation will also be affected when penetrating a media in the sense that the o amplitude will be attenuated and the propagation velocity will change, resulting in a sudden change of phase in the interface area. The radioband is of particular interest in that here waves can penetrate deeper into dusty areas and I also detect and measure complicated molecules by their rotational transitions.

20 It is an object of the invention to proved an accurate and reliable method analyse a gas and to determine the temperature of a gas directly in an industrial process without physical contact with the gas that is being analysed and without disturbing the gas and the process.

With this in mind, the present invention provides a method for measuring temperature and molecular densities in at least one of gases and flames in one of a melting process and a combustion process, said method comprising the steps of measuring electromagnetic radiation as a spectrum of frequency channels in the radio range defined as wavelengths between 500 meters and micrometers with a radio antenna positioned outsiae at least one of a process room and exhaust channel, performing the rneasurements during one of a continuous melting process and a continuous combustion process, and storing the received radio spectrum in a memory, and comparing spectral lines iN" I I~

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detected by a statistical line fit in the stored radio spectrum with theoretically calculated spectral lines assumed to be emitted by the high temperature collision excited molecules, and absorbed from a background signal when the population of energy levels for the collision excited mc.scule permit this, wherein molecular species are identified from the measured spectrum by comparing the detected spectral lines with molecular lines from the identification data base, and wherein the temperature is measured inside the process room and/or exhaust channel by measuring the relative intensities of several lines from the same molecular specie and comparing with a theoretical relation 10 calculated for the expected population of energy levels as a function of temperature.

The invention will be described more closely with reference to the drawings.

oc": Fig 1 shows an experimental set up; Fig 2 shows schematically a more sophisticated apparatus; o Fig 3 is a top view of the apparatus in fig 2; and :Figs 4 and 5 show spectrums, observed by the experimental set up.

Each molecular species has its own fingerprint in the form of a spectrum of lines, in the radio domain mainly determined by the quantified transitions 20 between vibrational- and/or rotational states. Molecular lines in the atmosphere are very much broadened due to the relatively high pressure. The most significant exception is if the molecular flow is highly directive, e.g. if we are looking through the flow at an angle perpendicular to that of the flow. In that case the pressure broadening will be much less and molecular lines can be well separated. This exception is the case for the gas flow in chimneys or through the gas flow from any burning process if viewed across the flow.

The invention can be best described with an experimental set-up shown in Figure 1. Here a chimney (11) is made out of ceramic material, chromemagnesite and charnwu te, and covered with steel. The chimney has an opening (12) for an oil burner. The steel cover has two opposite windows with intact ceramic material. Outside the windows (13) and in line with the windows are two parabolic antennas (14,15). One of the parabola is connected to a i-l transmitter (16) and the other parabola (15) is connected to a receiver The transmitter consists of a signal generator which is stepped in frequency over a wide frequency band. The received signal is compared with the transmitted signal in a cross-correlator (18) connected to a computer The electromagnetic radiation is measured as a spectrum of frequency channels in the radio range defined by wavelengths between 500 meters and micrometers.

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io -e I The received signal consists of a number of spectral lines emitted from the gas inside the chimney overlaid on the background transmitted signal. The transmitted signal is used to calibrate the frequency response of the system and the attenuation through the chimney walls by looking at the received signal between the molecular lines. This baseline will then be subtracted from the received signal and the intensities of the molecular spectral lines can be determined as a calibrated inside the chimney.

The system is further calibrated by measuring the signal transmitted through the chimney as a function of frequency when the chimney is empty.

The registered spectrum is stored in a computer. A database is searched for known lines which coincides in frequency with maxima within the observed spectrum. Thereafter a statistical distribution line fit, e.g. a Gaussian model fit is made to the line in order to determine the amplitude, frequency, and line width.

°g ~A line is considered to be detected if the amplitude of the Gaussian fitted line is 15 more than three times the calculated noise level. The measured amplitudes are then calibrated to an absolute temperature scale. If a number of lines from the same molecular species can be detected, then the relative population of the various energy levels may be determined. This relation is well know from molecular quantum mechanics and is mainly determined by the physical 20 temperature of the gas and the density of the molecular species as: Nu/gu Nrot/Q(Trot) e-Eu/Trot where Nu is the number of molecules in the upper energy level of the transition, gu is the statistical weight of the transition, Eu is the energy of the upper energy level in Kelvin, Q is the rotational constant. Trot is physical temperature, in the case of burning processes wlere the excitation is dominated by collisions due to the high temperature, and Nrot is the column density of the molecules of this particular species. Nu/gu is directly proportional to the intensity integrated over the spectral line and can therefore be measured.

If a number of spectral lines trom a molecule are avaiiable, then both the density (if the path length is known) and the physical temperature 'if thile molecule is predominantly collision excited) c.n be determined simultaneously.

If lines from other molecules are also present, then also the densities of these molecules may be measured from the intensity of a single molecular line.

I I I In most cases the molecular composition, density, and temperature of a gas in a process room can be considered to be symmetrically distribjted along the axis of the flow. Therefore single radio antenna is usually sufficient to !ocally reproduce the three dimensional distribution. Optionally, if the distributions are not symmetric the radio antenna may consist of an interferometer where the elements are radio horn antennas mounted in a plane (31,32) and with properly adjusted delay lines as shown in Figure 2. Then the two dimensional distribution of molecular densities and temperature can be reconstructed by transforming from the aperture v) plane to the image plane.

If then the system consists of interferometers (32) which are looking into the process room or exhaust channel from different angles as is shown in Figure 3, then the densities and the temperature may also be recovered in three dimensions by a Radon transform, similar to what is used in computer ooo tomography. Such a system can recover the temperature distribution in three 15 dimensions within a hot gas (or a flame). It can also, which will be more important, simultaneously recover the three dimensional density distribution of each detectable molecular species. These measurements are also performed without any physical probe since the radio signal may, as indeed was the case in our pilot experiment, that will be described penetrate through the ceramic 20 wall of the chimney.

In the apparatus shown in Fig 2, an experiment was carried out. An oxy/oil burner was installed and was burning in a steady state.

Fig 4 shows the spectrum observed in the radioband 20-40 GHz through :the flow in the chimney. Most of these lines come from SO2, some others from

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3 end other molecules. It is therefore clearly possible to detect molecules within the radioband in gas flows on earth. As a consequence it is then also possible to make images of such a flow. Fig 5 shows the identifications of some of the lines from one obsrrvations. Using SO 2 as a tracer it was possible to determine thp iorrperature as well as the dIrsisty of SO 2 as function of time.

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Claims

1. A method for measuring temperature and molecular densities in at least one of gases and flames in one of a melting process and a combustion process, said method comprising the steps of measuring electromagnetic radiation as a spectrum of frequency channels in the radio range defined as wavelengths between 500 meters and 30 micrometers with a radio antenna positioned outside at least one of a process room and exhaust channel, performing the measurements during one of a continuous melting process and a continuous combustion process, and storing the received radio spectrum in a memory, and comparing spectral lines detected by a statistical line fit in the stored radio spectrum with theoretically calculated spectral lines assumed to be emitted by :the high temperature collision excited molecules, and absorbed from a background signal when the population of energy levels for the collision excited molecule permit this, wherein molecular species are identified from the measured spectrum by comparing the detected spectral lines with molecular lines from the identification data base, and wherein the temperature is measured inside the process room and/or exhaust channel by measuring the S-relative intensities of several lines from the same molecular specie and comparing with a theoretical relation calculated for the expected population of energy levels as a function of temperature.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the density of the molecular species are determined by measuring the absolute intensity of a spectral line from that specie and compare with the theoretically expected intensity for the already determined temperature.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the electromagnetic radiation is measured in narrow frequency channels resulting in a frequency spectrum which is compared with a Known reference signal and is calibrated against th- back of the process room and/or exhaust channel transmitted copy of the reference signal.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the reference and background signal is created in steps of narrow frequency channels by stepping a signal generator in frequency.

A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the receiving antenna is an interferometer and that the two dimensional distribution of densities and temperature are reconstructed from the cross correlation of the signal of the individual interferometer elements.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the signal is received simultaneously by interferometers placed at several azimuth angles around the processroom and/or exhaust channel and the three dimensional distribution of densities and temperature are reconstructed by projections. DATED this 4th December, 1997 MEFOS STIFTELSEN FOR METALLURGISK FORSKNING :WATERMARK PATENT TRADEMARK ATTORNEYS 4TH FLOOR, "DURACK CENTRE" 263 ADELAIDE TERRACE PERTH W.A. 6000 AUSTRALIA -ea I I ~Pb